Chapter 53 The Things We Do for Love

Chapter 53 The Things We Do for Love

Scarlett’s POV

I drove like the devil himself was behind me.
The city lights streaked past, neon and rain blending into a blur. My fingers gripped the wheel so tight they ached, but I couldn’t let go. Not until I saw him. Not until I made him see.

Maria had lied.
She’d orchestrated everything: the doubt, the betrayal, the space between us.

And I had fallen for it. Again.

When I reached Damien’s building, the night air hit me like ice. The elevator ride to the penthouse felt endless. My reflection in the mirror panel showed someone wild-eyed and furious, a woman who had lost too much to keep pretending she didn’t care.

The doors slid open.

The penthouse was dark, except for the faint orange glow spilling from the living room fireplace. Damien sat there, shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows, whiskey glass dangling loosely from his hand.

He didn’t look surprised to see me. Just… tired.

“Scarlett.” His voice was low, rough, and my name on his lips still did something to me that I hated. “I thought you weren’t coming back.”

I stepped forward, every nerve in my body screaming. “You thought wrong.”

He tilted his head, studying me. “You look like you’ve been through hell.”

“I have,” I said, my voice trembling with anger. “And your name was written all over it.”

That got his attention. His eyes sharpened, though his tone stayed deceptively calm. “What did she tell you?”

I laughed bitterly, broken. “She told me everything. About you, your father, about how you used me to fix what he destroyed.”

The silence between us cracked like lightning.

Damien set his glass down slowly. “And you believed her.”

“I saw the way you looked at her,” I snapped. “I saw what was between you!”

He stood, towering over me now, his jaw tight. “What you saw was manipulation, Scarlett. She’s been pulling strings since before you were old enough to understand what she was.”

“Don’t,” I whispered. “Don’t turn this on her. She’s not the one who—”

“She’s exactly the one who,” he cut in, voice sharp as a blade. “You think you’re the first person she’s done this to? You think she didn’t do the same thing to your father?”

I froze. “What are you talking about?”

He ran a hand through his hair, pacing. “Your father wasn’t blind to who Maria was. He found out she was leaking information to Kade, playing both sides. He tried to stop her, but she had something on him that could destroy him. That’s why he made a deal with my father. To protect you.”

My breath caught. “You’re lying.”

He turned to me, eyes raw. “I wish I were.”

The words hit harder than I wanted them to. I shook my head, clutching my arms to steady myself. “No. She said you were using me.”

He stepped closer, his voice quieter now dangerous in its sincerity. “If I wanted to use you, Scarlett, I would’ve done it long ago. Instead, I’ve been trying to keep you alive.”

My heart ached, confusion clawing through me. “Then why didn’t you tell me?”

His gaze softened, but there was a storm behind it. “Because you wouldn’t have believed me. You never do.”

That stung more than I expected.

“I trusted you,” I whispered.

“You trusted the version of me you wanted to see.” His tone cracked then, like he was breaking right alongside me. “And I can’t blame you for that. I built walls for a reason.”

The air thickened, heavy with words we couldn’t take back. I wanted to scream, to hit him, to make him hurt the way I did. But instead, I just whispered, “Maria said you’d always choose her.”

Something flickered in his eyes: rage, disbelief, grief. “Is that what she told you before or after she tried to make you her mirror?”

I blinked. “What?”

“She’s jealous of you, Scarlett,” he said. “She sees herself in you, the youth she lost, the power she wants back. She’s been using me as a weapon against both of us.”

My lips parted, the realization burning through me like wildfire. The files. The recordings. It all made sense now.

“She wanted me to destroy you,” I breathed.

He nodded grimly. “And you almost did.”

I took a shaky breath. “Then why didn’t you walk away?”

He looked at me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then he said, quietly, “Because I love you. And I don’t walk away from what I love.”

The words hit like a physical blow. For a moment, the room vanished, the lies, the fire, the ghosts of Maria’s voice. All that existed was him.

But love wasn’t enough to erase what stood between us.

I shook my head, tears burning. “You can’t say that like it fixes everything.”

“It doesn’t,” he admitted. “But it’s the only truth left that matters.”

We stood there, caught in the wreckage of everything we’d broken two people too stubborn to let go, too scared to start over.

Finally, I whispered, “I saw something else, Damien. In her files.”

His shoulders stiffened. “What did you see?”

“A name,” I said softly. “Yours. Next to a payment. To Kade.”

His eyes darkened.

“That wasn’t what it looked like,” he said.

“Then what was it?”

He exhaled slowly. “Insurance. I made a deal to keep Kade from going after you. To make him think I was on his side until I could take him down for good.”

My stomach turned. “You made a deal with him — behind my back.”

“I made a deal to save your life,” he said fiercely. “If I hadn’t, you’d be dead right now. That’s not betrayal, Scarlett, that's survival.”

I wanted to argue. I wanted to hate him. But the truth was, I understood. Too well.

Because that was what love did. It twisted survival into sacrifice.

The fire cracked, and the silence that followed was suffocating.

I whispered, “So what now?”

Damien’s gaze softened, but there was something final in it. “Now we end it. Together.”

He stepped closer, his hand lifting tentative, almost hesitant before brushing a tear from my cheek. “But if we’re going to win this, Scarlett, you have to decide which side you’re on.”

I met his gaze, feeling the war inside me finally still. “Yours,” I said quietly. “Always yours.”

For a moment, it was just that truth, raw and terrifying.

Then he leaned in and kissed me.

It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t gentle. It was desperate, bruising, the kind of kiss that stripped you bare and left you trembling. It tasted of whiskey and rain and everything we’d both lost.

When we broke apart, my lips were swollen, my heart pounding.

Damien’s voice was hoarse. “We don’t get to be normal. We never did.”

I nodded, breathless. “Then let’s be dangerous instead.”

He smiled faintly, the kind of smile that made promises I knew we’d both break.

“Then it is dangerous.”

Later that night, as he slept beside me, I lay awake staring at the ceiling, the fire’s glow flickering across his skin.

He looked peaceful, a man who carried too many ghosts finally at rest.

But peace was a lie.

Because somewhere out there, Maria was still playing her game.

And I’d finally learned how to play back.